In my above-mentioned earlier application, I have described a vending machine system and, specifically, a method of and apparatus for the vending of beverages which affords greater versatility as to how those beverages may be dispensed. That system was especially directed to the vending of soft drinks and like carbonated and noncarbonated beverages at fastfood facilities or at vending machines wherever the dispensing of the beverage was to be effected by other than cash control.
According to the earlier application, the vending or dispensing machine was responsive, not to cash or only to cash, but to indicia on a card, slip or other medium carried by the patron and inserted into the dispensing machine to respond thereto.
The patron could be provided with a card with indicia which could be mechanically, optically, magnetically or electronically sensed to release a beverage, an item of foodstuff or the like, the card being given to the patron, for example, at an ordering location in the food service establishment or as a premium elsewhere. That card could be a single-use card or a multiuse card which, if desired, could be punched or otherwise marked so that, for example, after a certain number of markings, the patron could be entitled to a free beverage or food item.
In one aspect of that system, the medium carried by the patron to the machine and read by the machine was the cup into which the product was dispensed and which carried the indicia authorizing the machine to dispense the beverage.
In another aspect of that earlier system, the card registered a value which was prerecorded in the card or could be incremented at another machine or payment station, such as a cashier, the value of the card being decremented at the machine with each dispensing.
That system moreover provided for central station monitoring of the status of the vending machine and enabled maintenance thereof and, of course, central charging based upon utilization.